New York City Ballet opened its American Music Festival on a bittersweet note: Tuesday was the 30th anniversary of George Balanchine’s death, and in its founder’s honor, the company danced a program of works all choreographed by him.
And while it’s tough for things to look as they did when Mr. B was still around, there were a few performances well worth watching.
Balanchine salutes the Gershwins and the Great White Way in “Who Cares?” and Tiler Peck gave a masterful turn. She went from soulful to brash as she drew her hands across her eyes hoping for the man she loved, or tickled the beat in “Fascinatin’ Rhythm.” The other ballerinas kept up, even having breakthroughs of their own. Abi Stafford played with the audience as she bounced through her solo and Ana Sophia Scheller showed off long lines she didn’t seem to have before.
If only Santo Loquasto’s new costumes kept up as well. The women’s bodices, with black detailing over shiny silk, looked like lingerie worn in “Blazing Saddles.” The men in the corps, all in deep-blue coveralls, looked as if they had come to fix your sink.
Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette have done “Stars and Stripes,” Balanchine’s war horse to Sousa marches, for so long — since ballet school, more than a decade ago — that they’ve gotten restless. They threw caution to the wind and hammed it up, mixing risk and parody. She milked every balance and played patty-cake as she took his hand. He did Benny Hill salutes with a mischievous smile, and who knows how he saved some of the crazy turns or jumps he tried.
Yet one of the best performances didn’t have a single step in it. “Ivesiana” is a murky, imperfect ballet, a dark vision set to Charles Ives’ thorny music. Though it’s been cut and diluted over the years, Janie Taylor found magic in “The Unanswered Question.” Carried by four men, she never touched the ground as Anthony Huxley implored from below.
Taylor was frightening and remote all at once — aloft in the darkness on her human pedestal, a blond sphinx staring blankly from behind her tresses. She did almost nothing, yet galvanized the theater, which may be the greatest art of all.